Convicted robber back in prison

NEW LONDON — After avoiding law enforcement authorities for more than a year, a convicted robber is in prison facing several charges brought since he finished his prison sentence in March 2011.

Peter Helms, 29, formerly of Griswold, was arrested Nov. 6 in Hartford. Helms appeared Friday in New London Superior Court, accused of violating his probation for a 2007 robbery conviction.

In that case, on March 22, 2006, Helms was accused of holding a father and his 19-year-old son at gunpoint in a Griswold home, while another man, Ryan Crute, armed with a knife, stole a safe from a bedroom.

Helms then lived in Norwich. He and Crute were caught on Route 2 in Colchester fleeing toward Hartford, police said.

Helms agreed to a plea bargain and was sentenced on Jan. 11, 2007, to nine years in prison, suspended after serving five years, followed by three years' probation.

After getting out of prison March 22, 2011, and going on probation, Helms started racking up violations, his probation officer said.

In June 2011, he tested positive for using marijuana, the report said.

Helms was arrested on Aug. 16, 2011, after a driver on Interstate 395 in Montville said Helms, driving a gray pickup truck, swerved into her lane and hit the back of her minivan, then drove away, according to the probation report.

She got his license plate number and called 911, and state police found two witnesses who agreed with her story, the report said. Helms was charged with evading the scene of an accident.

Helms again tested positive for using marijuana in September 2011, the report said.

Then in January 2012, Helms was accused of trying to shoplift a pair of Nike sneakers from a Waterford store. According to the probation report, Helms put on the $70 sneakers and put his old ones in the shoebox the new sneakers came in.

He was charged with sixth-degree larceny.

Also that month, the report said, Helms again tested positive for using marijuana.

Helms was accused of violating probation on Jan. 30, 2012, and his rearrest was ordered.

Two more rearrest orders were issued when Helms failed to appear in court in February 2012 on his larceny case and in March 2012 on his evading case.

Helms wasn't rearrested until earlier this month, however. Hartford police found him at 69 Madison St., according to court documents.

Helms is being held on $111,000 bail on his three cases. He scheduled to return to court on Dec. 5.